blessed the children of Israel

33:1 blessed the children of Israel. When Jacob gave his prophecies relative to his twelve sons (Genesis 49:1-28), he was thinking especially of the personal character of each of the twelve, with the ways that character would manifest itself in the character of the tribe that would descend from him. Moses, however did not know the twelve patriarchs personally, but had become very familiar with the characteristics of their respective tribes. His prophetic blessings, therefore, deal more with the respective tribes as Moses had come to know them.

33:2 ten thousands of saints. Evidently there were myriads of holy ones with God on Mount Sinai as His right hand wrote the commandments for Israel on tables of stone. Note also references to angels at the giving of the law in Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; and Hebrews 2:2.